You’ve probably heard that web3 is the next version of the internet. A return to the original idea of the internet as an open and rewarding online world where people can explore their areas of interest — rather than be fenced into the walled gardens of large tech companies.
But how exactly does web3 reward people for their online behaviors? Through web3 income streams. Web3 income streams are financial rewards paid directly to users in cryptocurrency for their time, attention, content, data, gaming or online interactions.
Why web3 is taking over
To get a full appreciation of why web3 offers a superior experience, it’s worth revisiting what defined the initial world wide web (web1) and the web2 eras. Web1 stretches back to the 80s and 90s and was the original static internet — essentially just information displayed on webpages.
The transition to web2 happened in the early 2000s and for the first time offered people genuinely interactive online experiences where they could share their ideas on social and content platforms. It made it possible for people to be content creators and consumers at the same time. But it also saw the emergence and rapid dominance of just a few Big Tech companies that suddenly had user bases in the billions of people. As well as access to all the lucrative personal data they brought with them.
So while web2 made the internet more engaging, it also made it far more centralized. And the peer to peer interactions that people were looking for quickly led to those interactions and experiences being ultimately owned and controlled by a handful of very large and very profitable third parties. Nearly all the value created in web2 simply rose to the top.
By contrast, the transition to web3 offers people an entirely new model of internet participation. One that not only gives them access to information and the ability to share their interests — but to actually own and be financially rewarded for those interests.
One great way to summarize the three eras of internet evolution is:
Web1: Read only
Web2: Read-write
Web3: Read-write-own
With web3 you can own a part of the platforms you use, have a say in their direction and earn money by participating in them — via web3 income streams.
The web3 economy
There has always been value associated with people’s online interactions, but on web2 that value was captured by centralized platforms. Now low cost and real time transactions on blockchains mean that value can be tracked and distributed directly to the users of the platform as rewards for participation.
Web3 income streams offer direct financial rewards for your participation in innovative online platforms and networks. These income streams are being created today across a range of categories and interest areas:
- Blockchain gaming — earn crypto or NFTs while playing online games and building and interacting in virtual worlds
- Social and creator — earn by sharing words, images, videos, music or for your participation on web3 social media platforms
- Data ownership — web3 gives you ownership of your data. Get paid for web browsing and ad viewing or earn by choosing to share your online and real world data
- Activities and tasks — get paid to exercise with move-&-earn, complete surveys and micro-tasks online, or get crypto rewards for retail spending
- Resource sharing — get paid for sharing computer processing power, hard drive space, electricity, WiFi connection, DePin device data, or renting out real world assets.
- NFT-enabled — Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are the focus of much innovation in the web3 space and provide ways to earn across all web3 project categories
- Metaverse– explore and participate in metaverse economies and events or earn from owning assets like digital land and functional NFTs
And the best thing is all you need to get started earning these income streams is a smartphone and an internet connection.
Future of the web
Individuals and brands are recognizing that the value created from almost any kind of social or online interaction can now be efficiently and fairly distributed to community members and network participants. Which is why web3 is starting to explode. New kinds of income streams are emerging that can be accessed by billions globally.
Web3 is completely rewriting the rules on how value is created and distributed. It is evolving not just the internet, but the entire way we look at earning income. It’s time to start getting rewarded.
